XAI4Covid

XAI4Covid is as part of the supplementary funding module of the Volkswagen Foundation that aims at supporting research projects whose findings not only contribute directly to overcoming the crisis, but can also provide impetus for overcoming major societal challenges in the medium to long term. XAI4Covid investigates how research on explainability of AI systems could be translated and applied to improving public communication in complex crisis situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We will examine which AI explanation techniques could be applied to increase the understandability of public communication of expert knowledge (e.g contrastive and counterfactual explanations) and how they should be adapted to increase public understanding of expert decisions in crisis situations (e.g. by integrating persuasive communication techniques such as storytelling). This shall provide experts and decision-makers with novel methods to improve their communication and increase public acceptance and implementation of their recommendations (e.g. COVID-19 containment measures, vaccination).

Funding: Supplemental module “Corona Crisis and Beyond – Perspectives for Science, Scholarship and Society” of the Volkswagen Foundation

Duration: 2021-2022

Project Partners

EIPCM
Radboud University
University of Applied Sciences Stralsund